T-Mobile's John Legere Trolls Verizon's New Logo

[dgstorm]

You have to give T-Mobile's CEO John Legere credit, he certainly knows how and when to pounce on his opponents with counter-marketing campaigns. Yesterday, not too long after Verizon officially announced their new logo change, Legere lit up Twitter with the zinger you see above, mocking Verizon's new "checkmark."

As you can see, Legere cheekily used Verizon's checkmark to list some of the ways that Verizon (in his estimation) gives poor customer value. What do you folks think? Do his assertions hold up to scrutiny?

Source: John Legere on Twitter

 

[cr6]

It's simply John being John. Nobody takes him or his company serious.

 

[dgstorm]

I agree with your first statement about Legere personally, but I do not concur about T-Mo not being taken seriously. They have grown faster than any other carrier for the last three years, and all of the other carriers have changed their policies and prices in order to compete with them.

I would say they are being taken very seriously. Ultimately, their plans may not be sustainable, but there is still no doubt they have made a big impact on the industry.

 

[kodiak799]

and all of the other carriers have changed their policies and prices in order to compete with them.

That is very debatable. VZW competes mostly with themselves. Much of what people claim is a response to TMo on various fronts is related to VZW wanting to get out of the subsidy business, something they expressed long before people thought TMo would still be operating.

And a lot of the other family share stuff is VZW responding to maximize revenues in a market where more people have devices, and multiple devices. VZW has offered very little in incentives and plans to single users with one device.

Big Red is and has been content to let TMo take the lower margin customers. They compete with TMo about as much as Mercedes competes with Chevy.

 

[kodiak799]

I have not had anything but extremely positive experiences with VZW and customer service. My only gripe is locking down their phones.

 

[dgstorm]

Hmmm... it seems you only argued for Verizon, except I did not specifically mention Verizon. I simply indicated "other carriers." The facts speak for themselves. T-Mobile's growth at the expense of other carriers has had an effect on the market. I will stand by my statement.

 

[kodiak799]

Hmmm... it seems you only argued for Verizon, except I did not specifically mention Verizon. I simply indicated "other carriers." The facts speak for themselves. T-Mobile's growth at the expense of other carriers has had an effect on the market. I will stand by my statement.

You mentioned "all other carriers"....all would include VZW, no?

 

[RETG]

No more screwing than AT&T tries to do. At least when Verizon screws you, you have cell phone service to call some one to complain.

 

[cereal killer]

I was offered 1 gig FREE for moving up to Verizon's "Medium" plan this week. Same price, same everything but 1 GIG more. I thought "there has to be something to this" but heck I was going to see if this was true. Sure enough I called them and they said "yes" "You'll pay the same thing but you'll get more data"

Since I barely use any data (under a gig a month) I had to ask why the heck they were doing this "Not that I'm complaining but it makes no sense" The CS rep "well were trying to stay competitive and offer our customers a little more"

 

[JKZ]

I've been a Verizon customer for years and have pretty good service. However, I do agree that they tend to screw the customer in a lot of ways. But, with that being said, the one huge checkmark that T-mobile gets is "Terrible Coverage", CHECK!

I do like the in your face kind of marketing though. It's entertaining..

 

[dgstorm]

You mentioned "all other carriers"....all would include VZW, no?

Yes, but you only singled out Verizon. Why is that?

Again... based upon the obvious evidence, T-Mobile has had an impact across the US carrier market. Even if your argument is accurate that VZW doesn't ever bother to respond to or compete directly with T-Mobile (which is patently ludicrous), the fact that they respond to AT&T's price moves, who responded to T-Mobile's price moves, means T-Mo had at least an indirect affect on Verizon.

 

[Batman8]

As a Verizon customer for 25 years now, I have to say that I DO in fact agree with most of what John is saying about them. They surely have given me a hard time with their change in policies over the years, and they damn sure have been trying everything possible to kick me off of my unlimited data plan (even though I have been having to pay retail prices for my phones which I think is also ridiculous). Their cell coverage is often lacking too.

I just have not seen an "overall" better carrier so I've just been sticking it out, mostly because of the unlimited data since I do use a lot of it each month. I think that's the only thing keeping me with them as a customer.

 

[tech_head]

I was offered 1 gig FREE for moving up to Verizon's "Medium" plan this week. Same price, same everything but 1 GIG more. I thought "there has to be something to this" but heck I was going to see if this was true. Sure enough I called them and they said "yes" "You'll pay the same thing but you'll get more data"

Since I barely use any data (under a gig a month) I had to ask why the heck they were doing this "Not that I'm complaining but it makes no sense" The CS rep "well were trying to stay competitive and offer our customers a little more"

Just make sure your phone subsidy doesn't go away....
If you stay under contract, you keep the phone subsidy.... For now...

 

[kodiak799]

Yes, but you only singled out Verizon. Why is that?

Again... based upon the obvious evidence, T-Mobile has had an impact across the US carrier market. Even if your argument is accurate that VZW doesn't ever bother to respond to or compete directly with T-Mobile (which is patently ludicrous), the fact that they respond to AT&T's price moves, who responded to T-Mobile's price moves, means T-Mo had at least an indirect affect on Verizon.

Again, you said "ALL carriers responded". Does not one carrier make that claim as wrong as two or three? If you wanted to say TMo has had a big impact on Sprint, and to lesser extent AT&T, then your contention would have been much more accurate.

And there's no proof VZW responding to an AT&T move is an indirect response to TMo. AT&T also does plenty of their own moves to compete with VZW that have nothing to do with TMo. Data prices (or at least bandwidth) are and were going to come down, just as it did with cell minutes, regardless of what TMo was doing.

VZW has never targeted the value/bargain hunter, so TMo going after the bottom feeders has very little, if any, influence on VZW.

 

[cereal killer]

All I know is that if T-Mobile had really good coverage I would be long gone. Just their upgrade policies alone are worth the change.